LEOMINSTER -- The City Council voted 5-4 Monday night to approve Mayor Dean Mazzarella's $120 million budget including a roughly $70 million school budget that administrators warned could force deep cuts to staffing and programs.

"This is an agonizing situation we find ourselves in. I am mindful of the many fair-minded people who came down and spoke against this budget. No one can underestimate the value of our education to our city or in general," said Ward 4 Councilor Mark Bodanza, chair of the council's finance committee. "I don't take this lightly but I firmly believe if we turn down this budget we create an untenable situation having no legal authority to spend money.

City Councilor Mark Bodanza

"

Bodanza, along with Ward 2 Councilor Pauline Cormier, Ward 5 Councilor Richard Marchand, At-large Councilor James Lanciani Jr., and Council President David Cormier voted in favor of approving the budget.

"Going to a 1/12 budget is not something I wish on any community, and it will be hard to deal with but this budget will have such ramifications and do such damage to the school department it will take years to recover from," Chalifoux Zephir said.

Other councilors were more conflicted on the issue, with several admitting even minutes before the final decision that their vote was still "up in the air" as Councilor Cormier put it.

Advertisement

"In this position here, we are so limited by what we can do and I've taken to heart everyone's stories here but I also have to look at the other aspects of this and the potential of what it could do to the city as a whole," she said.

Like Cormier, Freda also admitted she was torn by the issue, though she ultimately voted against the budget.

"This is a horrible situation because we can send a strong message and we can also paralyze the city. There's no win here," she said.

LHS Principal Dr. Christopher Lord

The mayor's budget, which accounts for a little over $70 million to fund Leominster schools, drew criticism and concern from many in attendance, including Leominster High School Principal Chris Lord.

As Lord explained, staffing cuts created by the proposed budget would likely put 20 classes over the state's 30-student maximum and 100 classes at the maximum.

"This will provide little flexibility with the 500 to 600 students who historically enroll and unenroll during the school year," he said. "Further reduction in staffing would result in the cutting of programs and placing students into study halls."

Lord also said that 50 to 75 students would likely be unable to attend the Center for Technical Education Innovation in the fall because staffing cuts would close several vocational shop programs.

According to CTEi Director David Fiandaca, two of the programs at risk for being closed recently received supplemental funding of nearly $300,000 from the state government and private companies which was used to buy new equipment.

"What's totally embarrassing is that people in organizations from outside our city recognize the importance of the work being done in these programs and are willing to support these programs, but our own city fails to see this," he said.

The city budget remained a subject of contention for councilors this year due mainly to the money being allocated for schools. Although it represents a $1.2 million increase over last year's school budget, the mayor's budget funds school expenses and transportation at $5.6 million less than the budget endorsed in a vote by the School Committee.

In weeks leading up to Monday night's vote, Mazzarella had referred to the School Committee's draft of the budget as "irresponsible" and an example of "poor fiscal accountability" that the city would be unable to fund.

However, several School Committee members and district officials had also warned councilors that adopting the mayor's budget would present its own set of consequences.

"There are ramifications that are just incomprehensible if that $5 million reduction is approved by the council," district Business Administrator Glenn Fratto told councilors during a June 21 budget hearing.

Fratto explained that the mayor's draft of the budget could lead to 170 to 200 more school district employees being laid off.

In one of the district's earliest cost-savings proposals, school department officials estimated they would need to lay off 96.4 employees to balance the fiscal 2018 budget, which included cutting 36.6 instructional staff and 28 of Leominster's 35 custodians.

In preparation for impending layoffs, letters of non-rehire were sent to 127 of Leominster's 524 teachers. Although this is no indication of how many won't be hired back, the School Department has yet to publicly disclose how many positions will be cut.

Leominster High School chemistry teacher James Cormier, who was among the teachers to receive a pink slip in recent weeks, said Monday night that six members of his department are at risk of not being rehired.

"What will follow is diminished learning and teaching capacity," he said, adding this could affect the district's accountability ranking. "This would very possibly bring us down to level three or worse."

As local parent Carrie Noseworthy explained, teachers aren't the only ones likely to leave the district.

"Desperate times call for creative solutions, and I hope everyone inside these chambers and outside these chambers take that to heart," she said before later adding, "If things don't go well, I'm going to be school choicing my kids out."

Welcome to your discussion forum: Sign in with a Disqus account or your social networking account for your comment to be posted immediately, provided it meets the guidelines. (READ HOW.)
Comments made here are the sole responsibility of the person posting them; these comments do not reflect the opinion of The Sentinel and Enterprise. So keep it civil.